Various medical devices deliver energy (e.g., radiation such as light, radio frequency, etc.) through a delivery conduit. For example, medical areas that use lasers include angioplasty, cancer diagnosis and treatment, cosmetic applications such as laser hair removal and tattoo removal, dermatology, lithotripsy, mammography, medical imaging, microscopy, ophthalmology (includes Lasik and laser photocoagulation), optical coherence tomography, prostatectomy, and surgery. Consoles used to generate the energy typically need to know what type of delivery conduit is attached for a variety of reasons (e.g., power attenuation, filtering, etc.).
With many older laser device consoles, the identification of the attached delivery conduit (e.g., fiber optic cable) has been accomplished via a fixed resistance mechanism attached to the delivery conduit. Each type of delivery conduit is associated with a particular resistance. The delivery conduit is identified by measuring the resistance and identifying the attached delivery conduit based on the measured resistance.
With many newer laser device consoles, the identification of the attached conduit has been accomplished via a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag attached to the delivery conduit. A receiver in the laser device console receives identification information from the RFID tag.
A problem arises where both types of laser consoles (those using fixed resistance based identification and those using RFID-based identification) are in use. For example, doctors that have both types of consoles may need to have both resistive and RFID delivery conduits on hand. For manufacturers and suppliers of delivery conduits, they may need to make and stock both resistive and RFID delivery conduits.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved delivery conduits, particularly for delivery conduits that can be identified by medical device consoles that employ resistive-based delivery conduit identification and by medical device consoles that employ RFID-based delivery conduit identification.